Yacht Club : Landlocked Tars Sail Briny Where They Find It

The names of most yacht clubs carry the ring of wealth and prestige--the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Newport Beach, for example, or the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey.

But the name of one local group of sailors--the San Fernando Valley Yacht Club--sounds more like a joke.

“People hear that and they ask, ‘Oh yeah? Where do you sail, Toluca Lake?’ We get ribbed all the time,” said Dave Osborn of Burbank, a member for 17 years.

“We have a hard time getting any respect,” agreed Dave Pappmeier of Canoga Park, who has belonged for 15 years.

Landlubbers may find it difficult to picture a yacht club in the landlocked Valley. But like its sister fleet in improbability, the Swiss Navy, the San Fernando Valley Yacht Club really does exist. And unlike Switzerland’s navy, which confines its boating to a couple of large lakes, the San Fernando Valley Yacht Club sails the ocean blue.

75 Families Belong

Founded in 1960 by six weekend sailors, the club today has a membership of 75 families. Most live in the Valley, but people from outside areas may belong. The dues--$30 to join and $25 a year after that--cover the entire family, whether the sailor is single or married with a crew of children.

Most of the boats in the club are from 19 to 25 feet long, small enough to be stored at home and pulled to the ocean on a trailer.

Owners of some larger boats keep them in “mast-up” storage, meaning the craft stays out of the water on a trailer, but in a lot close enough to the ocean that the mast need not be taken down for travel. The club’s largest boats use more traditional, and much more expensive, marina slips.

“We’ve grown from a few car-top boats to the point where we have several 30-footers that people keep in the water,” said Pappmeier, who stores his boat, Blue Mist, at home.

“For my money, the trailerable boats are the way to go. We have an advantage over some guy who has a 40-foot boat in Marina del Rey and pays a fortune and gets bored being at the same location. We can go to Oxnard or Tahoe or anywhere we want.”

The San Fernando Valley Yacht Club not only lacks an ocean at its doorstep, it also has no clubhouse. The group meets the second Friday night of each month at a savings and loan community room in Sherman Oaks.

At least, it usually meets in the community room. The August meeting was held in the savings and loan parking lot because the member who normally unlocks the building had gone on a trip and took the key along.

Wally Cook of Yorba Linda, the club’s commodore, conducted the meeting from the bed of a pickup truck. About 40 members gathered around. Since the parking lot was poorly lit, the club’s secretary dispensed with a reading of the last meeting’s minutes, and the treasurer skipped the treasurer’s report. There was no electrical outlet for the hospitality committee’s coffeepot, and no shelves for the club librarian’s books.

Light-Hearted Approach

Fortunately, the sailors of the San Fernando Valley Yacht Club do not take themselves very seriously. They hissed and booed member Dave Hoag of Thousand Oaks for permitting his boat’s mast to collide with a fellow sailor’s kite string during a recent race. They sang a few verses of the club’s official song, “Rum By Gum.” They listened obediently to a couple of announcements, then adjourned to a pizza parlor for refreshments.

“We don’t stand on a lot of formality here,” said Gil Buffery of Reseda, a member for 20 years. “We’re a relaxed group.”

Buffery may be the wackiest skipper in this rather wacky fleet. His tasks include leading the group songs, which are apt to come at no time in particular, and issuing dispatches done in the style of Long John Silver.

“Avast, me hearties, ye bones of Black Bart and his piratical band are rustling in their graves,” Buffery wrote in the club newsletter, the Masthead, to announce an upcoming event. “Come to the Pirate’s Cruise to find the Buried Treasure--but you must be brave and able to face uncertainty and danger.”

Buffery, a director for Boy Scouts of America until his retirement, is in charge of the yacht club’s annual Sea Scout Symposium, a daylong training session for young sailors held each May. Buffery explained why he loves sailing.

“It’s the sense of adventure that appeals to me,” he said. “It’s totally different from anything we do in our daily lives. There’s a feeling to it of being alive that absolutely defies description.”

Lauri Sigler of Sepulveda, who often crews for Buffery, said it is the sense of flying across the water that attracts her.

“I love the speed. I get going six knots and the boat is heeled over, and I love the sensation.”

A few San Fernando Valley Yacht Club members are avid racers. Because the club is one of 70 in the Southern California Yachting Assn., which stages major races, members may compete in any SCYA event. Other members of the Valley’s yacht club take a more relaxed approach to the hobby.

“We offer a mixed bag of races and cruises,” said Buffery. “There’s something for everyone.”

Lucien Lacour of Woodland Hills, who with his wife, Karen, owns two boats, sees big differences between the Valley group and many other yacht clubs, where membership may be a mark of prestige and where some people join for reasons of business rather than pleasure.

Playtime for Adults

“This club is a chance for adults to play with their toys and be children,” he said, “and I mean children in a positive sense. We can cut loose from restraints and enjoy ourselves. And you can learn a tremendous amount about sailing, too.”

Another advantage is economy, as Pappmeier explained.

“People think of sailing as a rich man’s sport,” he said, “but there’s a tremendous freedom and mobility for what is a very reasonable cost. My boat cost me $3,600 15 years ago, and that’s for everything. It would be more now, but there are good buys if you look.

“The boat’s practically maintenance-free. I spend a little more for gas than usual when I pull it. I pay a couple of dollars to put it in the water. I pay $27 a year for a trailer license and $5 for a DMV boat registration. And that’s it.”

Since the rules of the U. S. Yacht Racing Union define a yacht as any craft that races, mentioning no size requirements, just about any boat owner can be a yachtsman.

Club member Osborn, who edits the Masthead, said the economics of boating are changing. Costs are on the rise. But in his view, the San Fernando Valley Yacht Club remains a bargain.

“Yacht clubs practice reciprocity,” he said. “Every year we exchange cards with clubs all over the world. That entitles us to use their clubhouses and other facilities, and of course they can use ours.”

If he had been a winking man, he would have winked.